Posts tagged “World War I”

think of what is going on in America today? The Shoals area abounds with men and women who have answered their nation’s call, sometimes during war time. We honor all veterans for their service and for protecting our freedom.

Thomas Franklin Woodis is one of those veterans. He served during World War I. Tom enlisted in the Army 6 March 1918 and was released 21 February 1919. He is first row seated on the right in the photograph. He was a very handsome soldier.

Tom was born 4 December 1898 in Colbert County, Alabama. The Woodis family lived in Allsboro. Tom Woodis was the child of Charlie Bud Woodis and Lucy Francis McCaig Woodis. He was in a large family of children. His siblings were John Fletcher Woodis, Joseph Andrew Woodis, Charlie H Woodis, Mary Effie Woodis, William Wesley Woodis, Jessie James Woodis, Shelby L Woodis, Roe Harris Woodis, and Terry Cohal Woodis.

In addition to being a veteran, he was a Methodist, and a retired farmer. The funeral was held at Alsboro Methodist Church. Burial was at Alsboro Cemetery near Cherokee, Alabama.

Survivors included his wife, Dora M Turner Woodis, Cherokee; son, Arthur Woodis, Cherokee; daughters, Marie Johnson, Lodi, California, Virginia Smith, Golden, Mississippi; and brother Terry Cohal Woodis, Florence; nine grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren. Son Roe Stanley Woodis died at the age of 48. He was a World War II veteran and was involved in a crash of the Sweat’er Out aircraft during the war.

Amos D. Brenneman served in Company C, 167th U.S. Infantry, served overseas and was severely injured in combat at Croix Rouge Farm in France on July 26, 1918. The last letter in the library collection written by Amos is dated 17 January 1919. Amos Brenneman remained in the military after the war, eventually achieving the rank of Master Sergeant.

Amos Brenneman served in the 42nd “Rainbow” Division, one of the first U.S. divisions to engage in fighting in Europe. The division participated in six major battle campaigns and served in occupation duty in Germany after the armistice was signed.

Amos Brenneman had a brother who also served in World War I. William Roy Brenneman probably spent the entire war at Fort Dade, Florida. He served in the Coastal Artillery Corps, Company 1. The last letter in the collection written by Roy Brenneman is dated 2 September 1918. Roy Brenneman was born 12 December 1894, and he died 8 October 1961, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is buried in the Crawfordsville Masonic Cemetery.
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well, not really postcards, but letters from the past. And the Shoals area has a past very saturated with historic people, happenings, places, and events. Take, for instance, one Amos Brenneman.

Amos Brenneman was born 13 July 1898 and died 9 February 1956. He and other family members are buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Sheffield, Alabama. Amos Brenneman was a soldier of World War I. He served in Company C, 167th U.S. Infantry, served overseas, and was injured in combat at Croix Rouge Farm in France on July 26, 1918.

The dates of his nine letters extend from 22 July 1917 to 17 January 1919. Amos Brenneman remained in the military after the war, eventually achieving the rank of Master Sergeant. His brother Roy also served. The letters will be shared here:

Each letter will be published as a separate article so that size can be maintained.

“Lest We Forget.”

“The statesmen of the world pledged themselves to the end of war; the common people of all nations fought and died to end it. That was an open covenant openly made. Shall it be nullified in secret? If one thousandth part of the brain power that is applied to planning for war, were applied to make it more ‘efficient,’ more deadly were applied to planning for peace, the thing would be done.

Today the world needs nothing so much as a course in a good memory system, a system whereby the mention of war would immediately bring up in the minds of speaker and listener a definite picture of a trench half filled with foul water, rotting corpses unburied in the field before it, or half buried in the ground underfoot, men stuck through like pigs, torn by shells, crying out in agony, men with gas seared lungs gasping for a last breath, bullets whinnying low and shells shrieking high overhead, and all over a stench of powder and gas, and putrefying human flesh.

If the mention of war clearly called up this picture for every man, and he could see himself as the one in the trench, instead of the safe and warm stay-at-homes, there would be no more war. If the kings, the leaders, the men who get near enough to the battles to get their thrill and stay far enough away to feel safe, if the greasy ghouls who profiteer from death could see themselves in this trench there would be no more war. But it is precisely these men who cannot call up this picture.”

The great mass of our common humanity have been looking with unutterable longing for our statesmen to bring peace to the world – and they have been woefully disappointed. Later on history will blacken its pages with eternal disgrace to some men now in high authority.

The above newspaper article was published 4 March 1921 in the Florence Times. It is just as àpropos today, is it not? Let’s do the math,:2011 minus 1921 equals 90 years. Add seven days and it is precise the length of time that has elapsed since this article. And, further, this article was published a couple of years after the War to End All Wars. So now you know how long – the bare minimum – this has been going on. This bears the question of just how much longer the American citizens are going to allow it to continue. This is the question, and the answer is what I want to know.